Grief `unbearable' after crash that killed 7 kids

LAKE BUTLER -- Shock turned to grief Thursday as residents of this tiny North Florida town set about mourning the unthinkable: seven children killed in a fiery crash.

A homemade memorial rose on the deadly roadside of State Road 121, flags throughout town flew at half-staff and a wall erected at Union High School filled with scrawled messages of adolescent loss.

FOR THE RECORD - ********** CORRECTION OR CLARIFICATION PUBLISHED JANUARY 28, 2006 **********Because of erroneous information provided to the Sentinel, an article on Friday's front page about the aftermath of an accident that killed seven children in Lake Butler misstated the name and age of the children's grandfather, who collapsed and died several hours later. William Edwin Scott of Hawthorne was 70.*************************************************************

"The grief is unbearable," said Church of Christ pastor Scott Fisher. "There aren't hardly any words you can say. You just cry with them."

The seven died Wednesday in the family's green Pontiac, waiting behind a Union County school bus, when a tractor-trailer failed to stop and smashed into them.

Then, in a final shock, the children's maternal grandfather, Bill Scott, 62, of Hawthorne, collapsed and died a few hours after learning of the accident.

"It's just unbelievable; it really is," Union County Sheriff Jerry Whitehead said. "You think it can't get any worse, and then it does."

Parents Barbara and Terry Mann asked for privacy Thursday, posting a sign at the entrance of their road asking reporters to stay out.

"It's hard to fathom what it's like to lose five children, two nieces and a father at the same time," said Fisher, who acted as the family spokesman. "It's almost too much."

Four students injured on the school bus remained at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, three of them in serious condition.

"Everyone is improving," said parent Carina Vaughn, whose son Dalton Sumner, 11, was released from Shands on Thursday afternoon. Her other son, Cody Vaughn, 12, also survived the crash but was not hospitalized overnight.

Sympathy poured into the tightknit community of 2,000 people 31 miles north of Gainesville.

Two banks opened memorial funds, which quickly attracted donations. At Barbara's Flowers and Gifts, the only flower shop in town, orders arrived from as far as Atlanta.

"Word has not got out yet as to where the funeral is," said florist Barbara Carter. "When it does, my phone will be ringing off the hook."

Praise flowed to the Manns, described as a loving couple who opened their lives to foster children. Elizabeth, Johnny and Heaven were adopted, and the couple were preparing to finalize their adoption of Anthony.

"They were the kind of family that ended up adopting every kid they took in. We are really devastated that this happened," said Steven Murphy, president of Partnership for Strong Families, which oversees child welfare in Union County.

"They're a very close family. They love everyone they come in contact with," said Lake Butler resident Mary Mock, 34. "Everybody knows them."

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Florida Highway Patrol are investigating the crash, which occurred in clear weather on a stretch of straight, flat road. Troopers have interviewed the driver of the tractor-trailer, Alvin Eugene Wilkerson, 31, of Jacksonville, whose driving record shows citations for driving with a suspended license in 2000 and for operating a vehicle in unsafe condition in 2000 and 2001.

NTSB investigator David Rayburn said the agency would subpoena information from the data recorder of Wilkerson's truck to determine how fast it was traveling and whether the driver braked before the crash. Jack Peetz, the chief operating officer of the truck's owner, Crete Carrier Corp. of Lincoln, Neb., said the company had representatives working with authorities.

An FHP spokesman said Wilkerson likely would face charges in a few weeks.

"These things are always sad," Rayburn said. "We're trying to do as thorough a job as we can to keep them from happening again."

Before Wednesday's accident, four people had died in the past six years on the eight-mile stretch of S.R. 121 between the Alachua County line and Lake Butler, the Florida Department of Transportation said. None of the deaths involved a tractor-trailer or a rear-end crash, said Gina Busscher, spokeswoman for the department's District 2.

On the charred and rutted roadside four miles outside of town, friends Randy Coffitt, Loni Lilliston, Ammy Lilliston and Janine McSpadden erected a flower-laden 6-foot cross bearing seven stuffed bears, one for each child.

"It's for the family to see," McSpadden said. "To see and know this community cares."

Nearby, Johnny Mann's progress report and his crumpled and muddy Miami Dolphins hat had been pulled from the wreckage and sat at the base of a street sign amid flowers and stuffed animals.

Friends remembered Johnny as a nice boy who loved the Miami Dolphins and made girls laugh.

"He always made you feel good," said Jorden Spitze, 11, who was in Johnny's sixth-grade class at Lake Butler Middle School.

At school Thursday, Union County's schoolchildren couldn't help but notice the gaps in their classrooms.